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Research · Diagnose, Plan

Cost and supplier benchmark

Establishes whether your input costs are competitive, using evidence rather than the supplier's assurance that they are. Leverage in a negotiation, and occasionally a discovery about your own model.

The printable canvas and the handoff into Claude Code are part of a paid plan. See what a plan includes. It needs the Claude desktop app on this machine, and your team and the prompt library already installed in that project — we cannot see your disk, so open it there.

Stage
01 Diagnose, 04 Plan
Works at
Business, Department
Maturity
Scaling → Large organisation
Time
One to two weeks

What it is

A structured comparison of what you pay for inputs against what the market charges, normalised for specification and total landed cost. Used to inform negotiation or sourcing decisions, and occasionally to reveal that a cost problem is a design problem.

Total landed cost
Unit price plus freight, duty, holding, quality failure and payment terms. Unit price alone misleads reliably.
Market range
What the same input costs elsewhere, from several sources rather than two. A range, not a benchmark price.
Specification normalisation
Whether alternatives are genuinely equivalent. Most apparent savings are specification differences.
Your leverage
Volume, switching cost, availability of alternatives, and their dependence on you. Determines what the analysis is worth commercially.
Switching feasibility
Whether you would or could actually move, including qualification, tooling and transition cost.
Action
Negotiate, dual-source, redesign or accept. Accepting is legitimate; not deciding is not.
The mistake people makeSingle-sourced by necessity means benchmarking is information without leverage. Still worth knowing, but do not build a negotiation on a threat you cannot carry out — it will be tested once and then discounted.
What it’s forYou suspect your input costs are out of line and need evidence before renegotiating.
What it’s not forYour supply base is single-sourced by necessity. Benchmarking a relationship you cannot leave achieves little.

How you run it

  1. Calculate your true landed costUnit price plus freight, duty, holding, quality failure and payment terms. Comparing unit prices alone is how businesses switch supplier and get more expensive.
  2. Establish the market rangeAlternative suppliers, indices, trade data, and quotes obtained properly. Two quotes is anecdote; five is a range.
  3. Normalise for specificationCheaper is often different. Establish whether the gap is price or specification before treating it as a saving.
  4. Understand your leverage honestlyVolume, switching cost, alternatives, and how much they need you. This determines what the benchmark is worth in a negotiation.
  5. Decide before you negotiateWould you actually switch? Negotiating with a benchmark you would never act on works once and damages the relationship permanently.

The prompt

Two ways to run it

Run this tool in your own Claude

The short prompt starts your partner against the library on your disk. The long one carries everything with it and needs nothing installed.

🔒 Prompt locked

Everything above is free — what this tool is, what it is for, what it is not for, and how to run it as a workshop. Three tool prompts a month are free with an account; beyond three, and for the printable canvas, it is the paid part.

See plans — from £19 a month

Your playbook

It lands in the earliest stage this tool suits. Move it on the Playbook page.

You’ll need

  • Your actual landed costs, fully loaded
  • A view of who else supplies this market
  • Willingness to actually switch, or the credible appearance of it

You’ll end up with

  • Your cost position against available alternatives
  • Where the gap is genuine and where it is specification
  • A negotiating position, or a sourcing decision

Runs well with

AI operating model optionsAlliance and partnership designAssumption logBackcasting